Judge: Feds failed to study how delta pumping affects salmon

AP via SFGate ^ | 4/16/8 | PAUL ELIAS, Associated Press Writer

[SmithL]

San Francisco, CA (AP) -- A federal judge on Wednesday ruled that water regulators failed to consider the effects of global warming and other environmental issues related to the decline of California salmon populations when they approved increased pumping from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

U.S. District Judge Oliver Wanger said a 2004 study prepared by federal regulators to support the increased water exports was scientifically inadequate.

"There is no analysis of adverse effect on critical habitat," Wanger wrote about winter-run chinook salmon.

The judge also ruled that there was a "total failure to address, adequately explain, and analyze the effects of global climate change on the species."

The study had concluded that more water could be taken from California's Central Valley to quench residential and agricultural thirsts throughout the state. The new pumping plan was already on hold because of a similar ruling the judge made about the Bush administration's failure to address its effects on a threatened fish species called the Delta smelt.

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the National Marine Fisheries Service, the agencies that prepared the study at issue, plan to submit a new study by the end of the year, said NMFS spokesman Jim Milbury.

"I'm sure they will look at the judge's opinion in developing it," he said.

Wanger scheduled a hearing April 25 to begin determining how the delta should be managed until the new study is published.

[SmithL]

EMPEROR Wanger scheduled a hearing April 25 to begin determining how the delta should be managed...

[SmithL]

Wanger, Oliver Winston

Born 1940 in Los Angeles, CA

Federal Judicial Service:
Judge, U. S. District Court, Eastern District of California
Nominated by George H.W. Bush on January 8, 1991, to a seat vacated by Milton Lewis Schwartz; Confirmed by the Senate on March 21, 1991, and received commission on March 25, 1991. Assumed senior status on May 31, 2006.

Education:
University of Southern California, B.S., 1963

University of California, Berkeley, Boalt Hall School of Law, LL.B., 1966

Professional Career:
U.S. Marine Corps Reserve Sergeant, 1960-1967
Deputy district attorney, Fresno County, 1967-1969
Adjunct professor, Humphrey College of Law, 1968-1969
Private practice, Fresno, California, 1969-1991
Adjunct professor, San Joaquin College of Law, Fresno, California, 1970-1991
Dean of the law school, 1980-1983
City attorney, City of Mendota, California, 1975-1980
Temporary judge, Superior Court of California, County of Fresno, 1988
Pro tem settlement conference judge, Superior Court of California, County of Fresno, 1989


Race or Ethnicity: White

Gender: Male

[VeniVidiVici]

So now judges are experts on salmon and global warming.

[happinesswithoutpeace]

bkmark for later/thanks

[coloradan]

Wouldn’t it be a strange world if judges vacated laws like gun control and Sarbanes-Oxley because the feds failed to study what impact such laws would have on crime rates or on business conditions?